Folklore and Folklife Research Guide

The State Historical Society’s Historic Missourians website offers folk legends in Missouri and includes several biographies. Each biography provides images, primary resources, and other references for further study. Notable folklorists and folklore writers are also listed below:

• Mary Alicia Owen - Mary Alicia Owen lived her entire life—except for many travels throughout the country and abroad—in St. Joseph, Missouri. She became famous for writing about the Native Americans and African Americans who lived in and around her hometown. Many of the books, stories, and articles Owen wrote were works of folklore. At one time Owen was called the most famous woman folklorist in the world.
• Vance Randolph - Vance Randolph was a folklorist and professional writer who lived most of his life in the Ozarks region of Missouri and Arkansas. Beginning in the 1920s, Randolph wrote numerous books and articles about Ozark life and culture. He traveled throughout the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks and observed all aspects of folk culture. Randolph personally recorded and collected ballads, songs, and stories that had been handed down orally from one generation to another in the isolated Ozark region.
• Henry Rowe Schoolcraft - Henry Rowe Schoolcraft wrote the first published account of the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks. He introduced the region to the world, but his writing, published in 1821, helped establish enduring negative stereotypes of the Ozarks and its inhabitants. In 1823, he married Jane Johnston, an educated and accomplished woman of Ojibwa and Scots-Irish ancestry. Jane helped Schoolcraft gather and record Native American languages, history, folklore, and customs.